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| ST. Johns River |
The Water Hyacinth is an invasive plant native to South America, they were brought over to the U.S in the 1880's where they were used as an ornamental plant. No one could have guessed the negative impacts that the Water Hyacinth would have on our local environment.
Over the last several months I have been investigating the impacts that the Water Hyacinth has on the environment. I found that they out compete indigenous plants in Florida by reproduce rapidly in a body of fresh water. They choke out water ways by producing daughter plants that literately clog up the body of water, limiting aquatic life and reducing recreation . They also cause oxygen depletion, when they decompose they release a high level of nutrients back into the water causing the oxygen levels to decrease in the area where the Water Hyacinth is present.
After all this research I stumbled across some amazing uses for this invasive weed. Some of which include creating bio-ethanol, sewage purification and heavy metal accumulation. This lead me to form my scientific question "What is the reduction rate of Copper when the Water Hyacinth is present?"
The method to my madness-
I will gather 6 fish tanks, 3 will have the Water Hyacinth and 3 will not (these will be my control) and fill them with distilled water. I will then add the appropriate amount of nutrients that the Water Hyacinth needs to thrive. After doing this I will add copper sulfate to all of the fish tanks and put them in a light box. I will monitor the change in copper sulfate over a weeks time.
The Materials-
Water Hyacinths
Fish tanks
Copper Sulfate
Distilled water
Light Box
Nutrients
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| Known locations of Water Hyacinths in Florida |
I hypothesis that there will be a decrease in the amount of copper in the tanks over time.
If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I will be happy to respond in my next post!
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